Unknown gunmen have killed three residents and kidnapped a medical doctor at Idere and Tapa communities in Ibarapa Central and Ibarapa North Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria.
The three residents killed were a businesswoman and two nine-year old cousins.
HumAngle gathered that the businesswoman, Alhaja Serifat Adisa, was killed on Saturday after the gunmen forcefully dragged her out of the Subawa filling station located along the Igboora/Idere road.
During the attack on the filling station, which was owned by Adisa, the gunmen fired sporadically into the air and in the process killed two boys.
The boys were on a motorcycle inside the filling station when the incident occurred.
The second incident involved the abduction of one Dr. Akinyele who was on duty at his hospital in Tapa, Ibarapa North Local Government Area.
The two incidents were confirmed by Joe Nwachukwu, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, in a statement made available to newsmen by Olugbenga Fadeyi, the Police Public Relations Officer.
Nwachukwu noted that some suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident at Idere town.
“The attention of the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, CP Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu, has been drawn to the two incidents that happened at Idere in Ibarapa Central Local Government Area, where a businesswoman and two nine-year-old cousins were killed by unknown gunmen, while a man known as Dr. Akinyele was abducted in Tapa in the Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State on the 2nd of January, 2021,” the statement read.
“The CP wishes to state that regarding the incident of murder at Idere where three persons were killed, some suspects have been arrested through the collaborative efforts of the police and other local security agents i.e. vigilantes, hunters, etc. and investigation has commenced.”
The police said the outcome will be made public in due time, adding that intensive manhunt is still ongoing around the area to arrest other fleeing suspects (if any).
“At the same time, massive deployment is being done to restore confidence to the community in particular and the whole Ibarapa axis in general,” the statement said.
The Commissioner of Police stressed further that the abduction of Dr. Akindele in his hospital, though not officially reported to the Divisional Police headquarters in Ayete as stated by the DPO was an issue of concern.
He reiterated his commitment to rejig the security architecture of the area to do more than the previous year —2020.
He stated that concerted efforts have been put in place to protect lives and property in Ibarapa axis in particular and the whole Oyo State in general.
The Police Commissioner, however, assured residents that adequate security measures have been put in place to professionally prevent any breakdown of law and order in the state.
While decrying the sharp increase in the rate of abduction in the state, he urged residents to go about their lawful businesses without fear.
Ruling Party Blames Buhari
While cases of insecurity continue to rise, the ruling party in Oyo State, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on residents to hold President Muhammadu Buhari responsible.
In a statement signed by Akeem Olatunji,
the party’s Publicity Secretary in the state on Sunday, PDP described attempts by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pass the buck of the growing insecurity to the state governor, Seyi Makinde as lame, unthoughtful and mischievous.
“While we do not want to insinuate that APC members and leaders, some of who have openly boasted that they will set traps for Governor Makinde not to succeed, are sponsoring hoodlums to disturb the peace of the state, the body language of the opposition and the fruitless attempts to pass the buck of insecurity in the entire country to Governor Makinde has sold them out as unpatriotic,” Olatunji wrote.
“What we in the PDP know is that Oyo State ranks among the least troubled in the national security index as attested to by undiluted facts. But agents of the APC, having failed in their efforts to find faults with the laudable infrastructural initiatives in Oyo State under Governor Makinde, are trying to exaggerate every incident just to paint a picture of insecurity and blackmail the administration.”
“However, we won’t fail to direct them as appropriate to President Muhammadu Buhari, who made security of lives and property a keyword of his agenda while campaigning for presidency.”
“We will admonish them to ask the President what happened to the security architecture he inherited from President Goodluck Jonathan, which Oyo State under the APC also benefited from, to the extent that kidnapping, banditry and insurgency have become a daily occurrence across the 17 states of the North and parts of the South.”
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